Thread: Mexicans' weary of drug war

Mexicans' weary of drug war

Updated 2m ago

By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY

MEXICO CITY — Taxi driver Francisco Arroyo rues the day he voted for Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

Three years ago, promises by Calderón's National Action Party, known as the PAN, to crack down on drug cartels sounded like a good idea, Arroyo said. But as congressional elections approach and Mexico staggers under an unprecedented wave of shootings, kidnappings and beheadings in areas near the U.S. border, he and other Mexicans have their doubts.

"Calderón shook up the beehive, and millions of bees came swarming out," Arroyo said as he ate lunch in a Mexico City park Friday. "I'm not voting for the PAN this time."

Across Mexico, voters are beginning to grow weary of Calderón's offensive, resulting in a surge of support for other parties with different anti-drug strategies.

Calderón's party is in danger of losing control of the lower house of Congress to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said Héctor Zamitiz, a political science professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The PRI did not interfere as actively with the cartels when it ran Mexico for most of the 20th century, and Zamitiz said many Mexicans are growing nostalgic for quieter times.

Other parties loudly demand a change in strategy, their proposals ranging from reinstating the death penalty to legalizing drugs.

Calderón will be in office until 2012, but the weakening Mexican economy and an erosion of support in Congress could impair his anti-crime agenda during the second half of his term.

His party has the most seats in the Senate and the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, but lacks an outright majority in either chamber.

All 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies are up for election July 5, along with governorships in seven states and local positions in 11.

"There is a very high cost here for the governing party," said Francisco Reveles Vázquez, author of several books about Mexican politics. "Instead of achieving more security, there is now a constant battle in the border cities."

Military offensive

Calderón, a conservative, won the presidential election in 2006 by a razor-thin margin. Days after beginning his six-year term, he announced he was dispatching troops to quell drug-related violence in his home state of Michoacán. That was followed by offensives in Tijuana, Juárez, Monterrey and other drug-smuggling corridors.

About 50,000 troops — more than the United States has in Afghanistan — patrol Mexican border cities and comb the deserts for drug smugglers. The United States has pledged $1.4 billion in aid for the effort.

Calderón has cast the crackdown as a historic effort to impose law and order.

The offensive has splintered the cartels, created power vacuums and ignited infighting, the Mexican attorney general's office says. More than 6,000 people have been killed in the past year, including dozens of police and soldiers.

Polls show that Calderón enjoys an approval rating of about 60%. But many voters appear to be warming up to the PRI, which governed Mexico for 71 years until Calderón's party wrested away the presidency in 2000.

"The citizens see that the president has good intentions, but they're doubting the way these policies are being executed," said Rep. Samuel Aguilar, assistant secretary-general of the PRI.

A poll by El Universal newspaper last month showed the PRI leading Calderón's party by 15 percentage points in the congressional races. Other polls by the Mitofsky and Demotecnia consulting companies showed the PRI ahead by 9 and 6 points, respectively.

"When the PRI governed, there wasn't this kind of violence in the streets," Aguilar said. "The PRI was more efficient in controlling the cartels."

In recent months, the PRI has become more critical of Calderón's military strategy against the drug lords.

It has called for Mexico to create a national guard to take over anti-drug duties, saying the military is not properly equipped to perform police work inside the country.

Rival parties' proposals

The left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party, which narrowly lost the presidential election in 2006, wants troops withdrawn and police to take over the anti-crime fight.

Smaller parties have put forth even more radical proposals. The Green Party has filed a bill to reinstate the death penalty, which has not been used since the 1950s. That would be a dramatic reversal in this devoutly Roman Catholic country.

The party has covered Mexico City with billboards and bus-stop posters saying "THE DEATH PENALTY FOR KILLERS AND KIDNAPPERS."

The measure is mainly aimed at kidnappers who kill or torture their victims, said Green Party Rep. Xavier López, a sponsor of the bill. He said such laws are needed to avoid the "Colombianization of Mexico," referring to the wave of kidnappings and terrorism that plagued Colombia in the 1980s and '90s.

The Social Democratic Party has filed a bill that would legalize drugs. Mexicans could grow marijuana and mushrooms for their own use, but not sell them. The government would produce cocaine and heroin and administer it to addicts at centers supervised by doctors.

"Bullets don't solve anything," the party's television ads say.

Hard-line policies against drugs have only fed the illicit trade and strengthened the cartels, said Luciano Pascoe, vice president of the Social Democratic Party. "The country has come to a point of no return," he said. "There is only the military way or a new, avant-garde way

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009 ... igue_N.htm

Americans are getting sick of your war, violence, drugs, illegal aliens, etc.

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While Calderon has done a fairly good job, it is beginning to sound like our $1.4 billion in support may go to another failing govenment. And these foolish people don't realize that the rule of law must solve the problems. I hate to say it but it sounds like although all these people want peace, they don't find it their duty to defend that peace by any means possible. Sounds like they haven't lost Montezuma who gave the country to the Spaniards without a fight.

"When the PRI governed, there wasn't this kind of violence in the streets," Aguilar said. "The PRI was more efficient in controlling the cartels."

Yes, I am sure because the PRI was hand in hand with the cartels. Corrupt to the core. Calderon and crew are similar, they just want a bigger cut of the dinero and the Cartels are telling them to get bent. Mexicans are such a pathetic people. They would rather accept Cartels running their lives than to fight. No wonder their society is so backwards and hopeless.

The mexicans are complaining about guns coming into their country like we are supposed to care. Wehave been complaining for years about their instruction of illegal invaders and they sent more. We should line our border with our military and our guns and take care of business. Bring our American Heros home to protect our country.

Am I wrong, send illegals to Iraq and Afganistan if they live after 3 tours they will get citizenship for that person only. No relatives not one anchor baby.

Send Nancy and Harry to the front lines

We definitely need to get our troops to the borders and stop all illegal entry of people, drugs and other contraband and criminals.

Originally Posted by AuntieIllegal

The mexicans are complaining about guns coming into their country like we are supposed to care. Wehave been complaining for years about their instruction of illegal invaders and they sent more. We should line our border with our military and our guns and take care of business. Bring our American Heros home to protect our country.

Am I wrong, send illegals to Iraq and Afganistan if they live after 3 tours they will get citizenship for that person only. No relatives not one anchor baby.

Send Nancy and Harry to the front lines

What they fail to acknowledge is that guns are being brought into their country by mexicans - the guns are coming from all over the world. They could care less about their idigenous citizens, that's why they actively encourage them to sneak into the US.

Mexico is an extremely racist country. The wealthy and the ones in positions of power are descendents of European nations. They are the educated and professional citizens of mexico, they are also not the ones who illegally migrate here. There is a definite "caste" system in mexico based on who your ancestors were.